This invention generally relates to electric lamps and has particular reference to an improved base and terminal-pin assembly for fluorescent lamps and similar electrical devices.
In accordance with current manufacturing practice, conventional type fluorescent lamps are provided with base assemblies having hollow brass pins that are staked to the insulator portion of the base assembly. During the lamp-basing operation, the lead wires that extend from the lamp envelope are threaded through apertures in the tips of the hollow pins, trimmed and then electrically connected to the pins by soldering or welding after the base has been placed on the sealed end of the envelope. Due to the small size of the base pins and the random location of the lead wires relative to the sealed ends of the lamp envelopes, it was very difficult to align the lead wires with the pins and then insert them through the pin apertures during the basing operation, particularly at the high-production speeds used in the industry. The lead-wire soldering or welding operations also create manufacturing problems since they require equipment that is very costly to maintain and, unless properly adjusted and frequently monitored, produces poor welds or soldered connections with resultant losses in both material and labor. It would accordingly be very desirable to provide a base assembly and a terminal-pin structure that would eliminate all of the foregoing manufacturing and quality problems.
Various schemes for mechanically fastening lamp lead wires to a base component have been employed in the prior art. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,771,589 issued Nov. 20, 1956 to Thomas, the lead wires of a fluorescent lamp are mechanically anchored in "pockets" within a plastic base member by force-fitted metal eyelets to provide a recessed-contact type base assembly. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,546,523 to Gilbert, Jr., the lead wires of a circular-shaped fluorescent lamp are connected to the base pins by forcing the ends of the lead wires into the slotted inner ends of the base pins that are embedded in the holder portion of a "snap type" base assembly. In U.S. Pat. No. 2,913,697 to Caplis et al. (FIGS. 1-4 embodiment), the lead wires of a "three-light" type incandescent lamp are fastened to the base insulator by nails of easily deformed material (such as lead) that are forcibly driven into the plastic insulator and effect an electrical juncture with the clamped ends of the lead wires.